Privacy Policy

An Important Notice from TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. about Its Privacy Policy

Please read this notice carefully. It gives you important information about how TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. (“TFI”) handles nonpublic personal information it may receive about you in connection with the Plan. It applies to all past, present and future participants in the Plan.

Information We May Collect

We, on behalf of a Plan, may collect personal information about you from various sources to provide information requested by you about the Plan, as well as to service and maintain your account in the Plan. We may obtain this personal information (which may include your Social Security Number) in any of the following ways:

you provide it on the Plan enrollment form (“Application”);

you provide it on other Plan forms;

you provide it on the Plan website;

you provide it during consultations; or

we obtain it to complete your requested transactions.

How Your Information Is Used

TFI does not disclose your personal information to anyone for marketing purposes. TFI discloses your personal information only to those service providers, affiliated and non-affiliated, who need the information to respond to your inquiries and/or to service and maintain your account. In addition, TFI may be required to disclose your personal information to government agencies and other regulatory bodies (for example, for tax reporting purposes or to report suspicious transactions). The affiliated and non-affiliated service providers who receive your personal information may use it to:

process your Plan transactions;

provide you with Plan materials;

mail you Plan account statements; and

enhance your Plan benefits.

These service providers provide services at TFI's direction and include fulfillment companies, printing and mailing facilities.

Under their agreements with TFI, these service providers are required to keep your personal information confidential and to use it only for providing the contractually required services.

Security of Your Information

TFI protects the personal information you provide against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, destruction, loss or misuse. Your personal information is protected by physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in accordance with federal and state standards. These safeguards include appropriate procedures for access and use of electronic data, provisions for the secure transmission of sensitive personal information on the Plan's website, and telephone system authentication procedures.

Changes in Our Privacy Policy

TFI periodically reviews this Privacy Policy and its related practices and procedures. You will be notified of any material amendments to this Privacy Policy.

Notice About Online Privacy

The personal information that you provide through the Plan website is handled in the same way as the personal information that you provide by any other means, as described above. This section of the notice gives you additional information about the way in which personal information that is obtained online is handled.

Online Enrollment, Account Access, and Online Transactions

When you visit the Plan website, you can go to pages that are open to the general public or log onto protected pages to enroll in the Plan, access information about your account, or conduct certain transactions on your account. Once you have opened an account in the Plan, access to the secure pages of the Plan website is permitted only after you have created a User ID and Password by supplying your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and Account Number. The User ID and Password must be supplied each time you want to access your account information online. This information serves to verify your identity.

When you enter personal data into the Plan website (including your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and your password) to enroll or access your account online, you will log into secure pages where we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for protecting information.

To use this section of the Plan website you need a browser that supports encryption and dynamic Web page construction.

If you provide personal information to effect transactions on the Plan website, a record of the transactions that you have performed while on the site is retained by the Plan.

Other Personal Information Provided by You on the Plan Website

If you decide not to enroll online and you want to request Plan materials to be mailed to you, or you want to subscribe to the Plan newsletter, you can click on another section of the Plan website (i.e., the Request Enrollment Kit page of the Open an Account Today section) to provide your name, mailing address and e-Mail address, respectively. The personal information that you provide on that page of the site will be stored and used to market the Plan more effectively. Although that page of the Plan website does not use SSL encryption protocol, your information will be safeguarded in accordance with federal and state privacy laws and industry norms.

The Plan Cares about Your Privacy

We use cookies on the Plan website to measure marketing results for the Plan. This process renders all visitors to the Plan website anonymous and will not personally identify you.

Consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing in the Edvest College Savings Plan. Please call toll-free 1-888-338-3789 or click here for a Disclosure Booklet containing this and other information. Read it carefully. Investments in the plan are neither insured nor guaranteed and there is the risk of investment loss.

Before investing in a 529 plan, you should consider whether the state you or your designated beneficiary reside in or have taxable income in has a 529 plan that offers favorable state income tax or other benefits that are only available if you invest in that state's 529 plan.

The tax information contained herein is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties. Taxpayers should seek advice based on their own particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor. Non-qualified withdrawals may be subject to federal and state taxes and the additional federal 10% tax.

The Edvest 529 College Savings Plan is offered by the State of Wisconsin. TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. (TFI) is the Plan Manager.

The Plan Web site is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any security that may be referenced on the site. Such offer or solicitation can be made only through the Disclosure Booklet.

The Plan Web site contains links to other Web sites. Neither the Plan nor TFI and its affiliates are responsible for the content of those other Web sites. The accuracy of information on those sites cannot be confirmed.